e e now now [Music] I good evening ladies and gentlemen I would like to call this meeting to order may I have a roll call please miss Capello yes Miss carbonel
here Mr Cohan here Mrs con Macky here Mrs FIA here Mr McDowell Mrs Mani here Mr nasta here miss Santana here Mrs Scott haen
here board member K Mai would you please lead us in the flag Saloon iance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for
all board member K macki would you please read the mission statement sure the mission of the township of Union Public Schools is to build on the foundations of honesty Excellence Integrity strong family and Community Partnerships we
promote a supportive learning environment where every student is challenged inspired empowered and respected as diverse Learners through cultivation of students intellectual curiosity skills and knowledge our students can achieve academically and socially and
contribute as responsible and productive citizens of our Global Community thank you so much Miss please read the open public meetings act in in accordance with the provision of the New Jersey opens public meeting
act the township of Union board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the day time in place thereof published in the Star Ledger in Union County local sources posted in the administrative building of 2369 Mars Avenue Union New Jersey filed with the Township Clerk and
mail to all persons if any who had requested said notice the Board of Education offers members of the public an opportunity to address issues regarding items on the agenda or on any issue individuals need to identify themselves by name and
address public comments are limited to 3 minutes issues raised by members of the public public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate the board ask all members of the public to be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when
speaking comments regarding students and employees of the board will not be responded to by the board thank you so much Miss the board will now go into executive session if feasible to discuss personnel and legal issues and action will be taken
may I have a motion to move into executive session second any discussion this motion has been properly moved by Miss Scott Hayden and Miss Mani
can I have a roll call please miss Capello Mr Cohan yes Mrs kte macki yes Mrs FIA yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Miss
Santana yes Miss carbonel yes e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e that's good evening everyone was expecting our response but
okay have to go back um may I have a motion to move back into our public regular meeting sove second this motion has been properly moved by Miss Scott Hayden and seconded by Miss Mani can I have a roll call
please miss capiello Mr Cohan yes Mrs kte macki yes Mrs FIA yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott haeden yes Miss
Santana yes Miss carbonel yes now we tonight we have a very special guest it's one of our students um she likes to go by alley but her beautiful name is Elizabeth right
goms and she is going to lead the US in the flag salute so please rise I I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so much woo before we continue our business tell us a little bit about yourself what's your favorite subject all right miss all
right um and what do you want to be when you grow up um I want to be biolog wow oh that's so impressive manifest manif EST manifest um Ally thank you so much Ally
was one of our guest speakers uh recently at a board meeting and and she noted some things that she wanted us to consider as part of the realignment and we were so impressed with her her courage her
articulation and we're just proud of our students and our children so Ally before we continue I want you to use your best voice and say I am Ally and I am
Union I am Ally and I am [Applause] Union certificate for you but we have to sign it all right thank
you Mom and Dad you should be proud thank you so much approval of the minutes may I have a motion to approve the following minutes so motion Miss s I'm Sorry Miss Santana and
seconded by Miss Mani roll call please miss capiello Mr Cohan yes Mrs K Mackey yes Mrs FIA yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes
yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott Hayden yes Miss Santana yes Miss carbonel yes next we will have our Communications that are reflected on personnel and operations
agenda once again good evening everyone I would like to take a moment to thank you all for being here tonight as we begin the public comment portion of this meeting I want to remind everyone that we value your input and appreciate your time and effort in sharing your thoughts
and concerns we ask that all comments be respectful and constructive as we aim to F Foster a productive dialogue that benefits our community in the work we are here to do each speaker will be
given three minutes to address the board please remember that while we are eager to hear your perspectives we are unable to engage in a discussion during this portion of the meeting however your comments will be carefully considered by the board and if
necessary followed upon on with that said I invite the first guests to speak first Speaker Miss Virginia Jeff Virginia Jeff 236 Brighton Avenue East orangs New Jersey um good evening president caranel
good good evening to all in attendance in person and virtually I have a question about the agenda the F fiscal planning fiscal and planning committee 18 approval of a of
bills a why are the invoice identifiers missing in the invoice column on the bills B There is inconsistency in computer checks and paper checks numbering number
one bills register number one where are the invoice identifiers that column is is left blank number two Bill submitted number
six depository trust vendor 2710 there's refunding interest interest years 2020 2021 refunding principal interest years 2020 2021 the checks are
1022 Dash to 25 and the total is 1,62 $2,875 a why are there no invoice identifiers B how is it that the district owes monies C and why is this a partial
payment um bills PDF number eight a what are miscellaneous expenses what are miscellaneous travel and C where are the invoice
identifiers thank you thank you Miss Jeff that's it next we will have the superintendence report thank you madam president and I would just just like to start off part of the superintendent's report moving forward is going to include two uh
administrators with the PTA uh just saying a little bit about uh the schools first up is uh Chris kuu if you could uh come on up Chris uh recently uh I'm actually very excited tonight because I didn't realize both of our
administrators that were going first uh recently moved to those schools uh Mr clar will be up next but uh both have been long longterm employees of in our district and um uh Chris moved over from the uh supervisor special ed to fill in
uh while Mr Hoy is out so uh uh M Mr crew is not new to our district but new to the leadership of uh con uh Battle Hill so please come up and you could uh introduce yourself again and and your uh PTA and then your presentation will be
up here for for good evening everyone my name is Chris inter principal at Battlefield of here some of the positive things going on
at so we'll start with some of the progr teachers and staff nominate students occasions and weeks throughout the year and student there and then we hang up their pictures up on the wall and that's Lo located
near uh the main office so one of the ways to highlight some of our students in the school uh another way is student of the month um so again teachers nominate students uh the nomination nominations are associated with some of theal activities uh and the monthly topics that again miss Aon Jackson the
school counselor um does and some of the topics are up there um some of the ones that are coming up uh sorry got cut off but February uh is empathy and acceptance uh we have March March is self-control April is healthy friendships and may is
responsibility so the students come down and Miss Jackson takes their picture um and then posts them on the wall so that everyone can can see them and then uh student council so this is from the fourth grade it's a group made up of four board members um so they have president vice president secretary
and treasur uh for the fourth grade students uh there's 10 Home Room representatives from the fourth grade classrooms uh voted in by the third and fourth grade students uh in what they call uh Battle Hill Elementary School election day um and they have some fundraisers uh one of the ones recently
in February was candy grams um they had opportunity some of the students all the students within the school had the opportunity to purchase a card llips for their classmates family members and friends um and those proceeds went for uh went to go to r or go red for women's heart health uh and then one that's
upcoming from the student council fundraisers is March Madness uh food pantry fundraiser and this is from Miss Chapman our art teacher um it's a piece called the colors of my feathers uh so one of the classrooms um they participated in
this and she is going to present their work uh to the spotlight on Spectrum virtual exhibition and just this is um some of the students work that's highlighted there and on the next slide as well with a little description about um how they made those pieces so shaving
cream um so they made the marble paper by adding liquid watercolors into the shaving cream um they took the popsicle stick to wipe off the cream in in one of the directions uh to make the marble look and uh then they use Quick sticks to power paint and uh they collage the
owls onto the onto the papers there so they great great work by the students there and then uh some in terms of academics um some growth that the students are making uh in math and Ela so this is this is from the I ready
diagnostic scores um from comparison from I ready diagnostic 1 to two um the second one just completed uh in between January and February with the window um so this is the percentage of students with the improved placement for each grade level uh so we have 35% uh from
kindergarten 38 from first grade uh 46 from second uh 49% in third and 45% in fourth grade and this is just a breakdown some of the highlights from uh each grade level in terms of the growth that they made um in in the second
Diagnostic in particular um so you can see from grade K they made a tremendous growth this it's kind of small at the bottom there but from they went from 15% to 22 in the mid or above grade level and from 13 to 29% for kindergarten uh some of the highlights for grade one
they went from 6% in the mid to above grade level up to 20 and then from five all the way up to 21 in first grade uh second grade they went from 13 up to 27% % and then uh that was in the mid to above grade level and third grade
went from 14 uh to 23 and even from the on grade level uh 18 all the way up to 34% in grade three this is all for reading and then our fourth graders uh doubled there went from 8% to 16% from the mid or the above grade level there
and some of the highlights for math um same same chart there some of the percentage of students with improved placement and you can see the numbers there on the right uh 23% for uh grade K 34% for first grade 33 for second 38 for
third and 54% for the fourth graders and the same chart here kindergarten went from 9 to 16% uh in the mid to above grade level uh and then from 9 to 18 and then for grade one 4 to 14% uh in the the mid to above grade
level uh grade two it went from zero to 4% uh and then from five to 15 and on grade level uh third grade went from 3 to six and then from four all way up to 15% for their above grade level I'm sorry for on grade level and then fourth
grade I went from 0o to 4% in the mid or above grade level and from six all the way up to 22% on the on grade level so they made some good growth there in fourth grade math and the next piece is the the uh PTA SE that's
me um so just wanted to highlight few of our events that we have hosted um so far so first one is our most famous like popular one in our school which is a Halloween Harvest Dance our kids love going there to Come Dance have hang out
with their friends show off their amazing costumes and as well having some snacks uh we usually have a full house and again this is one of our popular dance for the the students that get to enjoy to come to school um the next is our biggest
fundraiser Racing for our school year uh it's our annual trick-or tray our myself and and the rest of my uh board members we start working really hard in beginning of July until sometimes
probably the day before our event all again all the donations goes out to help our school to pay for much things that we need our educational assembl classroom supplies and also the kids look forward to the end of a gear bash
that we have that we host and as well as the playground equipment um also something that we do sponsor is several scholarships graduating uh the grats at Uni high school students and a memory of our former our bleill student Jason Lopez
and our former teacher assistant Crystal shrinkin again this is our fundraiser tricky trade hope you guys can join next year and then the last event we again again we host is our school fair and an
of the Year bashed our B host um students get to enjoy a school Fair which is May or June again depending on the on the weather uh they look for counting uh catwing candy popcorn bouncing houses we have ice creams some
train rides and most importantly the water dunk that we host are one of our teachers got dunk by one of the students several students and then also we get to enjoy our year fun party phone party which is another thing that we actually
along with our Union fire department they come and kind of like host them with the water um and again this is kind of like aob the end of the event and then um this is why we work really hard on our trick-or tray that we spent all
summer trying to race um again this is all for our kids for the Battle Hill students we love to see them smile year toe and and enjoy all our events that we have for them so thank you thank you very much and like I said
it's not easy to step in in the middle of a school year Chris has done an amazing job hopefully already building a relationship with the PTA and uh we're excited for everything to continue so thank you very much thank you um Dr
benaquista questions any questions or comments Sorry by um I Believe Miss K Faria is quite shy about asking she wants to know if you two are related
no my husband's last name maybe I don't know I G have to ask him thank you no thank you both so much um it is nice to see that we are not only addressing academics but also social and emotional learning um through these wonderful
activities I certainly want to be invited to the bubble one the the fo yes the foam one it looks like a lot of fun um and to Mr Coro Coro did I say that correctly Karu um thank you so much for
providing that data you know and I'm hoping that we can Target those students that fall in that yellow um deliberately and intentionally and I know that there's a lot of work to do but it seems from one grade to the other we are little by
little improving so thank you thank there you go thank you again so next up uh uh like I said earlier Mr clar if you want to come up uh with your team uh Mr clar uh
maybe uh about two months ago now I sat down with our leadership team met with Mr clar and the leadership of the UTA and um you know I'm I'm very excited that Mr clar wanted to transition over the Bernette because we we needed uh
someone to fill in there he's done been doing an amazing job him and his team uh so I'll uh you could uh put on one of these and then I guess van or who wants it and then this should be coming out shortly here's a clicker all right s if
you want me to do the HDMI I can is in the last one so I'll jump back the last one okay I get I guess while we're waiting for this to come on is this on can you hear me okay while we're waiting for this to come on uh my name is Ben clock I'm the
uh interum principal at Bernette middle school before I get started and introduce everybody I like to thank the board of education for giving us the opportunity and Dr Ben Quist and his team for giving us the opportunity to showcase our school and some of the positive things that are going on there's a lot going on at Bernette um
that's positive and and I'm excited to share tonight with me I have one of my vice principes Mr Ruddy uh he's primarily in charge of the eighth grade but he is a a huge asset me and the team um and the other two are are absent today so unfortunately they can't be
here I also have our board president miss miss van squa and and our board vice president miss Collins here supporting as well so thank you very much for coming out I just have to wait for this one to come
on okay all right so um this evening we're going to present some of the positive things that are happening at berett like I said we're really excited to showcase our school some of the um some of the event or the uh programs
that we have running in our school uh that I like to share tonight are beyond the bell pbsis play unified the uh PTA and our BMS Performing Art Center beyond the bell is
a program that we have after school three days a week which helps to some of our students to become proficient in the in language arts and math through small group instruction the title one coordinator
will identify the students in need of support through reviewing various data from njsla um the uh ISL Diagnostics course grades and they also take recommendations from their teachers
and counselors as well students once they're selected they will participate in a six- week session um their growth is continuously monitored throughout the session and shared with the students as well as their parents and Guardians and
when possible if needed we can have students repeat for the the additional sessions after that due to the huge success last year beyond the bell has expanded from 86 graders from last year from November to
April to now two over 200 sixth and seventh grade students um we started this in October and the program will run until the beginning of May when testing season starts so uh that's that's a huge uh
growth there and in the next slide I'm going to share some you know positive things as well as you can see through the slide here 85 or more students are part uh are consistently showing growth throughout the program can I can I comment real
quick Mr class so this is this program began last year it started off with six graders so we each year we we will expand to each grade so the program started off with sixth graders last year it's expanded to sixth and 7th and then
we'll we'll transition where will be uh all of us 6 7th and 8th and like I said the purpose of this program um is to close that achievement Gap you know they're actually looking at uh the data and they're looking at individual standards and providing that individual
learning in a small group setting so like I said we we have uh shown so much growth but the number one thing is getting the parents on board um and building capacity and and and forming that relationship because we need the kids to come in and
put put forth that effort to show show growth so it like I said this this year has been tremendous with reaching out to the parents uh in the different grade levels to try to get them in and get them to fully understand what the purpose of the program is and to close
that achievement guy and we've been working diligently uh like I said on my end I'm calling the house I want the parents to come in I want them to know about the program I want them to know what the program does we're looking at the data we're looking at the individual standards and we're trying to meet the
needs of each individual students by having them in these small classroom settings after school thank you as you can see on this next slide we we show the growth from last year uh like I said before we served 86 six graders last year and 89%
grew within their proficiency 50% grew by one full grade level or more that's in ela and in math 100% grew with in efficiency and 79% grew by one grade level or more so that was some tremendous growth from last year
hopefully we'll see the same this year these are just some shots of the kids you know participating in the [Music] program next program I like to talk about is the pbsis program this program has has been in the in brunette in
particular for uh many years now but some of the new initiatives that we are uh starting up this year are if the snack heart for the teachers for teachers who are participating s giving out brunette bucks throughout the week
they they may get a surprise visit from the snack cart on Monday mornings we're also uh we have the Bernette Blitz which is a fun classroom challenge where we encourage positive behavior and
it's tied into the theme of the week forette Blitz announcements are made twice a week so for example if it's you know the the the weekly theme is come to class with your Chromebooks charged we make the announcement the teacher gives
brette bucks out to the students who who are are in line with the theme of the week so it's pretty fun for the students and the teachers as well like I said there's two there's uh announcements made twice a week also we're coming soon we're we're
we're putting together a social emotional roomal room where students can reset and recharge and also the pbsis program teamed up with the student council to provide chargers for each of the classrooms to help support Student
Success in preparedness these are some of the the staff members that were visited by the snack cart and this is this is my favorite part of the program here the the pbsis program collaborates with the school store um so they join forces with the
school store which is managed by our multiple disabled self-contained program this collaboration will help present the students with multiple disabilities and other needs learning learning needs with hands-on experience
that extends beyond the classroom students from the self-contained program learn gain valuable experience by managing the school store they develop essential skills in real world uh life skills
practical job skills social emotional development and mathematical skills talk about the experience during the day especially on Fridays when they they take orders from us so it's basically they have like a a breakfast
spot after school so they also have yes so you want you want to share that no so they so a Google form goes out in the beginning of the week this is another one of my favorites that's I they they they send a a breakfast Google form out so on Fridays they make uh Taylor hand
making cheeses coffees deliver it to you uh it's really it's it's a real it's it's great you know so it uh it's a nice way to hit the spot and and I know a lot of teachers um and staff members are participating in that as well so we keep
them busy all week over there uh these are some two of our students one is is filling orders and the other one's counting Bernette bucks Next program another great program is play unified the Unified sports
program joins students with and without disabilities together on the same team Bernette has been receiving this grant for the past 12 years the students um in this program will meet every Wednesday for a buddy lunch and every Monday after
school they have UniFi practice where they go up in a small gym and they hold the practice with um all the students together uh students who they will compete later on this year in unified bowling and in track events as well our
BMS will uh BMS will send 10 athletes to the state level Special Olympics this year which is exciting that was a boost last year they boosted up to 10 and the yearly tours run they participate in that as well with the Union PD I
actually ran it last year I'm excited to run it again this year as well as the overnight state competition at the College of New Jersey next up PTA you guys want to jump in or okay they're shy
all right so some of the events or activities that we have I I broke it down to student focused uh staff focused and and uh in in also uh Community Focus so grade level dances back in um we had the
Halloween dance for the sixth grade this coming Friday we have the glow party for seventh grade we will have an eighth grade dance this year um sometime in May sometime in May it won't be it won't be in a cold sometime in May and and we it's going to be red carpet but we were
kind of hoping for the wild west but we didn't get it so uh the kids voted for the red carpet Affair so we're excited about that ice cream socials in the beginning of the year uh
spring and fall Field Days Book Fairs eighth grade committee that the PTA Mr rdy put together so this year um my transition from the high High School to Bernett I kind of adopted some of the principles that uh allowed me to be successful at the high school uh I can't
do everything alone so when I met these lovely ladies um we formed a partnership but we also have to seek out assistance from you know others in the building so I have Miss kavez I have Miss Sloan and I have Miss Hawk and a plethora of other
teachers as that that has been willing to assist us to all of everything that they wanted I I've been working diligently behind the scenes to get so it's been a minute but we finally have a class trip which you
know um I surveyed the student body I didn't want it to come from me I surveyed the student body I wanted to know what do they want to do because a lot of times there's too many adults making decisions on children having fun so like I said I wanted the ownership to
be on our student body we had a Google form form uh we surveyed the entire eighth grade staff I mean population and like I said they pick the trip uh we're going to Funplex it's going to be Wet n
Wild but we'll have a good time El do we have coming up um any fundraisers so everybody know yeah so we have some stuff on the next slide for for staff appreciation
some initiatives they have they have coming up and have done we're to welcome back the school breakfast the holiday staff lunch staff Wellness days teacher appreciation week coming up in May the for the community engagement and
family fun nights uh brunette vers kwami volleyball gate we won by the way we took home troph all right um and there's a dodgeball game coming up in in the near future as well family paint night family bingo night and family movie
night those you have the the fowers up there for the paint night that's coming up not this Friday but the following Friday sounds like a lot of fun for families next up is our middle Bernette Middle School
pack and um I was kind of hoping they can come here tonight and do a little performance for you but unfortunately it was kind of last minute when I thought of it so they weren't going to be prepared but they're excited to announce that for the first time since 2019 they were going to have one in 2020 but the
schools closed down the day of their opening night in 2020 they will presenting they will be presenting the first show since then spring show staging sister Jr and we encourage everyone to come attend so mark your
calendars hope to see everybody in attendance March 7th play in 5 years 8th and 9th it's going to be a great show here's the uh the poster for it and thank you very much for
[Applause] having thank you Mr clar Mr rdy PTA we appreciate you coming out and sharing a little bit that's going on um Dr benaquista may I ask my colleagues any comments questions they don't go for May
I of course I just wanted to say thank you to Mr Karu and uh Mr Clark for stepping in um to these schools midy year um we appreciate all your hard work and your presentations
tonight thank you thank you yes and um I I want to Echo those sentiments um it seems like the two of you along with the ptaa are working together to make sure that our students at Bernette have a good experience and
that they receive the added support necessary as part of that enrichment program you should be very proud of yourselves that you went from 80 students participating to 200 that's very notable and it speaks volume about the experience that the students are
having there so thank you both and thank you to our PTA thank you thank you very much good so thank you again to M Dr bista I just want to say I play volleyball so if you ever need an extra count on
me I may coach too but not professionally thank you I I thought I heard Mr rdd's goingon to do the run with Mr Clark this year right no nobody knows but Mr clar also does marathon so uh he's the right person for
IT um so thank you again Mr crew Mr clar Mr rdy PTA I know it's a lot uh especially to pull away from families uh we appreciate you going here this is the vision of this board is to build collaboration on a a higher level than we've have in the recent past uh with
Community with PTA with all organizations uh so this is one little bit to it we just had an event with to PTA which was an excellent uh very light atmosphere but got to uh just have conversations with uh the PTA and and
and our district leadership so it was awesome I I love where we're going and I just thank you you guys were the first one so even more pressure I think you did a great job so thank you again and anything you need support wise that we could support you with with these first
time trips that you guys I know are pulling off is is awesome just reach out and we'll do what we we can uh right Miss no so uh um just going back we'll we'll give a short up update on our
education uh Hannah calwell realignment board couple resolutions and then uh obviously every month ahead so um first I would like to call up one of our directors Isabella sakoa come on up so recently I sent out some
notification to the community about Isabella and uh what a wonderful uh recognition she received um I'm going to read it so I don't mess up uh so Isabella was recognized as the twoh 2025
National associations of federal education program administrators for the state of New Jersey it's state leadership award in New Jersey but it's all the states uh get together in Washington DC you will be down there on
March 18th and receive the award but um she was seen from the colleagues throughout New Jersey as the person they wanted to represent New Jersey correct kind of I know you don't like I'm putting you on the spot so I I mean for for us to um highlight our our we have
so many um employees that do such amazing jobs sometimes you don't spend enough time celebrating the people that are doing so much um anything I ask Isabella to jump on she just doesn't jump on it she takes
care of it and in the end I get a final product that is amazing um she's helping me in so many ways on top of you know her normal uh elevating all our grants bringing more grants to our district I think we've uh we'll highlight it at one point during the year of how many more
grants we've had but uh she she knows what she's doing she does an amazing job she's a wonderful employee to have and always will to be a team player so it a small M do you want to come over for a quick picture miss carbonel and miss
Scott Hayden or board the board let let's do the board here's a a small token you'll get the real award the nice plaque in DC you could bring back but I appreciate everything you're doing the we're going to do sideways I learned
this as part of Ina thank you I was holding congratulations [Applause] again so the re the reason I put on removal of a school Improvement award the siia status uh for the Union High
School because Isabella is tied to that as well um I see some of the high school staffs here um so this is a testament to everyone working together when we lose something we think it's a negative thing this is a a positive thing when our schools remove the status uh of
improvement so I I without getting into too much uh Union High School at the end of 25 June 25 uh will have successfully exited from it but I did um want to just highlight in the past Jefferson last year and Franklin also was removed uh we
do have one school left but uh in a couple areas I believe next year we'll be out of that in that school um but I know there was questions on siia and what it is and and how we determine it there's another whole presentation uh on
it if anyone wants to go to it click on it but for just the sake of time I'm not going to go through all that and anyone Isabella even mentioned to me today anyone that wants more information particular to this if the slideshow doesn't do it just Reach Out email Miss kakosa and she'll be happy to go a
little further into it uh with anyone so that's a great accomplishment when we're coming out of SIA status so congratulations to the high school I know Miss boser the principal back there and her team is uh here tonight um one
of the little uh and and I'm happy Mr Karu and Mr clar uh mentioned some growth spots uh you know what we said we're going to do is just highlight a couple areas where in the educational side um some trajectories we're seeing
um again we we updated uh several months ago couple different board meetings where are districts at with uh student performance on the SLA we're all on the same page we're not happy but as long as we keep growing with that uh we're going
to get closer to being successful at least equal to or better than the state um so what I would like to highlight is uh we've been doing a lot with our instructional coaches um and I'm not going to read through the whole thing but they're really looking
at the data we have in this uh slide I just want to highlight the Middle School withl um and they looked at the data there and in in Reading uh they've seen more than a 20% growth um in a number of
students on or above grade level in K1 and two um as well uh and and that's their foundational uh grade levels so if we're we're seeing growth there where kids are on or above um that's amazing
so we see our Middle School growing on some of our data points that we have inl from diagnostic one to diagnostic two but then we're also seeing it at the lower level which again Chris highlighted some areas as well just like Mr clock um so it was perfect um where
they highlighted some academic growth that they're seeing as administrators of their buildings and and we're seeing it throughout throughout the district um so we we also in k 4 for our ml population student scoring below grade level
decreased uh 15% so that is actually we we did better there in our ml population uh um as well so similar percentage of special ed students scoring at or above grade level increased uh in K to four um
so again some positive little marks along the way to show where our students are going in math the percentage of students at our above grade level increased in all K to eight grades especially K to four we saw significant gains um in in the areas of
algebra algebraic thinking uh numbers and operations and a lot of the areas in reading that we identified were stuff we discussed earlier uh that we needed to improve on and and it's really showing now uh with the I think a lot is um our administrators really getting in the
classroom more uh kind of identifying needs our collaboration uh with plc's and some of the other things we're doing as well as uh we have a new uh Ela program hopefully that it's also making a positive impact um couple um years ago
we started really pushing for seala by literacy so again I'm happy to announce uh last school year we had 23 students tested we're up to 52 students St this year so in 23 24 we uh did only two
languages uh now we're up to eight and in 23 and 24 we awarded 12 seniors with Spanish and French or French uh seale of bi literacy in 2425 already we've identified 23 seniors earning the seal
this year which we do recognize them at the end of the year and 17 Juniors earning it for next year and representing uh those languages there almost all eight not not quite but we're getting there but even today we identified a student that uh uh brought
that Haitian creel into that uh representation uh because we found out today that we had a student in uh Haitian Creo so we're really making some great progress and thank you because I think it might have been an initiative of the board couple years ago where we
wanted to make sure we were uh doing this not all districts do this uh seal of by literacy and we're grown we're a diverse District this is awesome uh for us to be able to share this um so anything else on that I put a link so
again community that wants to go in a little deeper on the SE what is the state seal of Byers you could tap that we uh made sure that was included um there's something coming up uh K to5 stem fair scheduled for March 19th 5 to7 uh the education uh uh team
is is doing that with the schools um as well as this is huge because we talked about making sure we're building Community uh and one of the areas we've talked about is our multilingual family getting them involved so we're doing more and more to get them involved so in
the end it's going to end up working with the our our students the more the families are involved and and it might have been uh one of the presentations mentioned maybe Mr Ruddy might have mentioned or Mr clar about bringing families because that's how you're going to make a difference is when your
families you're working together so our our supervisor of World Language ESL Miss Garcia partnered with the Union Public Library that was one thing to host a ml caregivers um and um and and that's a great partnership with the the
local library but and then on January 27th with our ESL Department we began began adult ESL classes for ML caregivers so we're providing opportunities for them to learn as well so those are two amazing things I think
we're doing um and there's more to come but those are just two highlights I would like to talk about with uh rounding out education now as an update um I apologize for the title this is Hannah Caldwell update not realignment uh reignment is coming in a little bit
um but I want I spoke about last month the zones how they broke down Hanah Caldwell because I want to show the progress that's going on so right now the zones are colorcoded so they know what zones uh they're working in and their teams are going to but this is
from a couple weeks ago I wanted I made sure I put a highlight there in approximately two two weeks the whole thing will have green dots on it what that means is it's been cleaned it's it's it's at a point where it's been retested and it's clean at that point all the the process that they go through
it's it's uh retested at the end and it'll be clean and I know they didn't update the map but I thought it was important to show the zones and how they're progressing to it and that uh a majority right now I know the purple and the green are are green I believe uh the
uh yellow is almost or done already but they get they said to me within the next two weeks the biggest thing is next is on us because there's some areas that we have to get the stuff out um the stuff that they've already cleaned or other other things in there we got to get it
out so then they can finish doing that so we don't slow up the process so our team is is working on making sure that happens uh this week and next week so then they could make sure that in the next two weeks all the zones are are clean uh this is again just some
highlights so if you see that they do very detailed cleaning at the end product when we do save stuff you'll see it's wrapped so it'll show that they totally went through the the the disinfecting things they do the process
and then they wrap it and we store it so right now we're shifting everything from what is our clean area the gym we're storing it in uh uh we're going to be getting a shipping containers to put everything in till next when we open back up but they need that gym free so we have to shift everything there to get
everything out of the building so you even see that they identify and put it into a a a different area of the building that again they don't want to cross-contaminate you see some of the things they're doing some of the stuff that's left in the room we unfortunately are identifying that we can't save uh
but uh Miss K verify we've we've uh spent a lot uh uh on time and and money on cleaning as much as we can we're down to the the final uh parts of it and unfortunately there's going to be some stuff that we can't uh Salvage for the
safety of everyone uh but uh we'll we'll make sure we put out more information on that here's again more more just pictures of them cleaning they give me detail reports uh uh weekly on everything going on um and then and uh
they did have to do some more demo work recently the good thing was we had a lot of rain and snow so we were able because without rain and snow you sometimes can't identify areas of the building that are still need to be addressed so areas we thought might have not possibly
had a little leak coming from somewhere we were able to identify because of the weather uh so now they're addressing that so they did let us know there was a couple points uh with uh under Marissa McKenzie's leadership uh Anthony is
already addressing um to make sure because then once that's buttoned up then that again uh can we can't put anything back together until we identify all that not that you know something won't happen in the future but it's important we get to identify and we haven't had that much rain up until this
point which was it was a positive thing even though it identified some areas we need to address so just so the community knows these are some of the reports I get this is just one area one room say of the building what they R went through and what they did in that area and it's
all based on the uh industrial hygienist report so that report will dictate what work they do in what area of the building and if they identify another area they communicate back together to make sure that they're taking care of every every aspect of that
building so realignment update uh Community should have received the letter today two letters went out one to the the Committees and one to the um the entire Community let let everyone know where we're at so uh this is the one that went out to the a a summary of what
went out to the entire community so on March 27th uh we're going to meet all the Committees are going to meet together and we're going to kind of dive into where everyone uh there'll be uh summaries of all the minutes we'll dive into it kind of uh reflect on where we're at we'll take some feedback from
the community members uh and then kind of put out where we're going next with correspondents behind the scenes uh we are still working the the UTA leadership uh we have a collaborative group of UTA principales uh Association uh central
office and we're working really on the impacts on Personnel to kind of know that and get ahead of that as much as we can with the reconfiguration but there's more to come in March I think a a lot more details will come we just want to get the Committees together and and get
down to these new three committees education uh fiscal operations and personnel and we're we're going to combine them uh and uh start moving forward with those some resolutions I wanted to just highlight is uh we had a retirement uh dilia mlan Bernett Middle
School currently vice principal uh but she's been in several of our buildings as an administrator and teacher I believe and Miss BOS you could correct me if I'm wrong she started with us at Franklin Elementary School as a teacher correct yes so she's been with us for many many years she's retiring uh one of
our plumbers and the reason I highlight Michael's been with us for many years but everyone anyone that knows plumbers that want to come work for us any of the trades it is hard to get uh so if Community knows anyone that wants to come and work for their local school district if they're in Union even if
they're not please reach out let us know we're we're always looking into hiring uh more plumbers electricians hbac we need we need as much help as we could get uh but some other things I want to just highlight is there's a E5 E8 and
E10 um you know E5 is talking about tutoring uh for the Hanah Caldwell that was one of the things that came up is the you know that that uh School lost with the closure um so I'm excited that that's on um the summer uh programs are
on for locations and what summer programs that they might shift depending on work we have to do over summer but right now uh we're getting those improved and it's as much as it's it's making me scared that the summer's coming so quick it's nice that we're ahead of it and uh again miss kakosa is
one that helps me with all our summer programs and getting creative uh last year we had how many student Le summer programs we had about 20 high school students that volunteered to work all of oured prrams so they LED homework help
um they LED enrichment activities they LED um Recreation activ them activities you know throughout the summer and they're also currently working during the school year helping with homework and all of our programs so uh under you know Miss Bard's been the Principal of
of Union High School uh two years ago I was working with her students and what came from that is is the students asked can we do summer programs what we're what we we really love and you know what it's a conversation later Isabelle made it happen so it you know
it it That Grew From our students asking um and I know that Miss bostard has a lot of things going on that are student driven from the students to our leadership and her team so it's awesome that to again um when the students were able to help help students do what they love and it helps our students in our
community next is I just like to highlight we'll be updating the community but we'll highlight Jefferson next month when uh Miss deato joins us to highlight Jefferson but they did just receive a pbss pbsis award for
2025 um as I have to Hib uh uh what we're reporting this month is only two cases were the from February 12th to February 18th one was founded at kuami Middle School one uh not founded or inconclusive at henna Caldwell and we
have to affirm cases tonight six found it and seven not found it inconclusive and there's the schools and that's from January 22nd to February 11th and and I just highlighted E2 so everyone's aware we have to do this we have to make sure the board approves our
SDS s SDS numbers student safety data system reporting with the state so uh it is on for approval tonight but I just wanted to throw it in and uh that concludes uh my uh presentation thank you Madame
President any comments questions Mr C yes I'm glad that Dr vanista highlighted that resolution on the uh supplemental tutoring for the Hannah kba School uh I met with Mr Shaw this morning and he was talking about uh the
fact that because of the challenges of of the move in this current school year teachers are noting that students are struggling a little bit so this additional tutoring will help to bring help bring them along over the course of the balance of the school year thank you so much
um I I want to thank Dr benaquista that was a very thorough and wellth thought out presentation um where is he right there thank you and I believe we also have a newly hired guests here tonight that you
wanted to wonderful um next we're going to move to um the agenda but before we do um I will be remiss if I didn't mention President's day that we celebrated yesterday everybody was off um and just
share some information I learned um do you know the President's Day in originally started with the celebration of wa president Washington's birthday I did not [Music]
um and in the late 1960s through the uniform Monday holiday act which was specifically created to give the workers of the United States just a longer weekend they Consolidated it to
celebrate all the presidents um I thought that that was very very telling um and did you know I'm going to quiz you now um that as a results of that most of our holidays occur on a Monday with the exception of Veterans Day
all right children we are all learning together including myself but I C you know I just wanted to recognize President's Day additionally uh we had some of us had the opportunity to visit Hamilton school and um it was very nice
to see as we consider our entire Community our extended Community just some of the wonderful instruction teaching and learning taking place there um where technology was at a minimum however student engagement was at a high
so I I would you know I wanted to say something in relation to that I don't know Madame Vice if you want to say something um just to Echo what Madame President said it was definitely an eye opening experience um I was proud to be there representing our board um in
collaboration with the township of Union and just to see the level Excellence that was occurring in the classroom and the enthusiasm of the students to have their own School in space they actually had it on the bulletin board of um what were you most proud of and I think the
term was that they used in their uh language was I think was called Hamas um and they were saying it was thankful for their own School building and space to be able to learn in and I can just tell you just by being in the space and seeing the um Smiles on the students
faces truly demonstrated that um they were glad and thankful that we thought enough to be able to open the door so that they can have a um learning institution that they able to come to and speaking to the the director facilities he said they started with 11 students and I believe they were at what
200 students and he plans to have by next year another 200 students attending uh Hamilton school so um it was just a very eye opening experience and I was glad I was able to attend and last but not least on Thursday we we held the PTA
meet and greet um um it was an opportunity for us to come together with the school leadership the staff um and some of the parents parent leaders of our community um I just want to say we had a wonderful time and I I I'm very
grateful to the board the the the District staff and the parents um for a very special evening um but I would be remiss if I did not thank uh Miss noes for the wonderful video chaffy Senator
cryan mayor Bowser the district leadership the staff the parents and of course Miss cryan from tap into to Union thank you so much next we will have the education and student discipline committee chair Miss
mani and Miss Faria to present the resolutions that will be voted on tonight thank you so before we get to the resolutions I just want to give a couple of updates from our committee um first I want to start off with um we received an email um from the community
asking us about the use of midterms at the high school we did speak with the District administration on that and what was decided is um they used to have midterms and finals during covid that kind of changed they are maintaining final exams but have decided to not keep midterm exams and part of that is just
to increase student contact time but also they're moving more towards uh assessments that are standards based so more like quarterly exams that will give us more information that we can help the students um so that's a work in progress that I wanted to provide an update um
the other great things that are are happening and Dr benaquist already highlighted some of them but I wanted to talk about we've been talking about takes a whole team and we've heard about the coaches but also wanted to hear about some of the work that's happening with our building Administration we know
that teachers improve when they're getting feedback so we wanted to highlight that some of the work that's been done with the supervisors where they're having and building a supervisor toolkit so they just recently had a session on how to provide uh effective feedback for teachers and so it looks like some of this work that's happening
at all levels is definitely working out and improving our student score so it's great to see that um uh we also want to say thank you we're getting a generous donation from the union Police Department community policing unit they're donating all um
the cool Bean makes a splash for uh r Across America that's coming up in March so we wanted to say thank you to them because every student's going to be able I believe second grade is going to be able to go home with their own copy of the book and that's always a great um
celebration um and I think everything else was mentioned thank you Miss Faria so uh upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the education student discipline committee presents the following resolution for the board's
consideration E1 and e1a were affirmed February 11th 2025 at the work session um E11 superintendent report on Hib there's no vote required for that um e11a affirm superintendent
determination of Hib E2 approved student safety data system report E3 approve Holly Rock entertainment assembly at Franklin Elementary School E4 approve solution overview Franklin kovi education professional development E5
approve Varsity Tutors tutoring for students at Hannah cwell E6 approve the application uh rack space technology Foundation Grant E7 approve application dreams program E8 approved summer
scholar Program locations E9 approve a Grant application um the union Education Foundation E10 approve locations for extended school year E11 approve acceptance of the cool Bean makes a splash book donation E12
approved disposal of library books from Hannah cwell elementary school and then we have e13 we're just changing this um resolution uh the wording um So based on the document uh provided by the uh
research study for the research study by a doctoral student from ruter University um the subsequent internal review board board approval and uh final recommendation from the superintendent so this is just an an
application um for the student to apply to the university to um do this study but it will not happen until we have the um the final recommendation from our superintendent with all the uh documentation that needs to be uh
provided that's is there a second second any discussion Mr Cohan would you like to say something about 13 uh yeah just briefly when this
resolution was presented to the board uh tonight it it came to us after the committee meeting last week so the committee members had some questions we spoke with Dr Rodriguez about his understanding of what was being requested here and that's why we've
modified the resolution from the way it was printed on the agenda we merely need to provide our approval so that the student can apply to the Ruckers University internal review board subsequent to that the Administration has some additional questions of the
researcher about how the study will actually take place in our school uh so we're providing the approval that that the student needs so that she can proceed with her proposal and the board will finally act when we receive a
recommendation from Dr benaquista after she gets her approval thank you so much um I would personally like to thank um the union Police Department um they do not only keep us safe but um I see that
they are supporting our literacy initiative so I'm very grateful to them and wanted to recognize them um this motion has been properly moved by Miss mani and seconded by Miss Faria can I have a roll call please miss capiello Mr
Cohan yes Mrs K Macky yes Mrs FIA yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Miss Santana yes Miss caranel yes next we will have the
fiscal and planning committee chair Mr Cohen and Mr McDow to present the resolutions that will be voted on tonight thank you madam president uh just to share with the board and the the community some of the work of the committee that's not yet reflected in
resolutions Mr mcdal and I met with Miss last week to review the preliminary review uh Revenue numbers for next year's budget we're anxiously awaiting Governor Murphy's budget address next week to see what level of state aid we'll be receiving uh and then
will'll be able to put together uh or the administration will be able to put together a final budget final budget proposal which will come to this board in April but Mr mcdal and I are uh having ongoing conversations with Miss to make sure that we construct the
budget for next year in as responsible a way as possible but making sure that we have all the the support we need to advance the all of the goals that we have for the district uh the other thing I'd just like to quickly highlight uh the resolutions tonight are
essentially the the kind of proor and standard resolutions we see every month for accepting donations and approving uh fundraisers and so on but uh if you take a look at resolution f9a and f13 we're
starting to see some action putting together the funds that will be distributed at the senior Awards assembly in June uh we're still several months from the end of the school year but that is one of the highlights leading up to the graduation of our
senior class and there are tens of thousands of dollars that are distributed from philanthropy in the community and people uh for example there is the Dora fines achievement awards fund Miss Dora fines was a a
teacher and administrator in the school district over 50 years ago wow so her her philanthropy lives on for many many years and then finally um F-16 is another resolution that I'm I'm pleased to see
on the agenda uh through the through a grant from the New Jersey Department of Education an an organization called learning Alli will be providing some additional supports in Reading development which is uh at the heart of our academic goals for our students as
Dr benaquista noted uh so every school every Elementary School in the district will be getting some additional support through that program Mr mcau thank you Mr Cohan and I'll just present the
resolutions uh for the fiscal and planning committee upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the fiscal and planning committee presents the following resolutions for the board's consideration F1 is the treasurer's report F2 is the secretary's report F3
is the is to certify the treasurers and secretary's report F4 is to approve Appropriations transfers F5 is to approve a list of contracts and purchase orders F6 is to approve the districtwide travel and related expenses uh F7 was approved last
week and that was for student field trips so we're not voting on that tonight f7a is to approve the districtwide student field trips this is again f7a uh f8 is to approve the list of of 2024 2025 State contract approved
vendors uh F9 is to approve list of contract and purchases for Student Activities that are listed here again f9a uh f9b is to proove fundraiser activities at various schools that are also listed here in the
chart um f9c is to accept donations and we have donations from U uh PepsiCo beverage Shutterfly and uh uh the estate of nicolina
aono uh F10 is to prove 2024 2025 out of District student placement list F1 is to prove Frontline uh this is uh the district's program for uh absence management
professional growth uh uh IEP uh 504 interventions recruiting and hiring and time and attendance for the 2025 2026 school year in the amount of $4,160 42 again this is the uh uh absence
management and other uh managing managing software uh F12 is to approve new Pathways counseling uh f-13 is to prove distribution of funds and these are for the scholarships that uh Mr uh Cohan just mentioned there are four scholarships there actually five because
one is two uh $50 scholarships uh F14 is to approve student transportation contracts uh DCF and this is DCF DCF for the state of New Jersey F-15 is to approve parent Pupil Transportation
contracts and F16 is to approve Learning Ally reading program again we went uh Mr Cohan went over that just a little bit earlier uh f F uh uh F A TT y or attorney these are this is for informational purposes only but that
will be will not be a vote on that this evening so Madam president those resolutions are presented except for 7 F7 except for F7 are presented tonight for the board's consideration and a vote
I second the motion thank you thank you so much any discussion I just want to say thank you to you both both for highlighting those individuals that have contributed to our school um districts in some way or
fashion so thank you so much and um highlighting some of those resolutions um the motion has been properly moved by Mr McDow and seconded by Mr Cohan can I have a roll call please miss capiello Mr Cohan yes Mrs K
macki yes Mrs FIA yes Mr McDowell yes yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Miss Santana yes Miss carbano yes next we will have the Grievances and settlements and negotiations committee
chair Miss Santana to present the resolutions that will be voted on tonight thank you so much Madam president upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the legal committee presents the following resolution for the board's consideration L1 we're approving a modification of settlement agreement and release and L
to approve approving the sidebar agreement of the township of Union Transportation Association I hand it back to you madam president thank you so much is there a second second can we do that one more time so I
can that was Mr Cohan okay any discussion this motion has been properly moved by Miss Santana and seconded by Mr Cohan can I have a roll call please miss capiello Mr Goan yes Mrs K macki yes Mrs
FIA yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott Hayden yes to L1 and L2 obain Miss Santana L1 no L2
yes Miss carbonel yes next next we will have the operations committee chair Mr nasta and Miss KY macki to present the resolutions that will be voted on tonight thank you thank you madam president um the operations committee
met we have a couple of items um in terms of facilities use um in the coming weeks we will be meeting as a committee um and sending to policy an examination of our processes surrounding how we
utilize facilities and and allowing people to rent them out um as we all know some of our buildings are aging um and we want to give a shout out to our facilities team um because as each issue comes they work diligently um to try to
navigate it as we try to figure out the best ways we hope um help will be coming along the ways to help us with our aging infrastructure um from the state this is something that is not just to districtwide Union it is across the
state we're dealing with buildings that are 80 to 100 plus years um however our Building Services team members have been doing an amazing job we also talked about security and our operations Department in our operations committee meeting and we want everyone to know
that the safety and well-being of our students educator and staff remain our top priority and there have been some enhancements that have been made to foster a more more safer environment however given that it is safety this is
something that you know you don't want to put too much out there because we don't want to you know have where we put the playbook out there um but we encourage any student parent educator to please speak to your buildin leaders to discuss
any concerns you have surrounding the security of any enhancements updates or any concerns questions that you may have directed to your building in leadership they in turn will follow up with the appropriate areas in question um last
month we talked about the technology committee coming off of the agenda however we have to send it back to policy um to review it and so that policy team can then update it to reflect it and then hopefully I'm hoping
next month we'll be able to Loop technology into operations but for this month it will be um on this agenda in a separate entity um and last we want to talk about I wanted Greg and I wanted to talk about the it enhancement um Mr Susa
has come on board with Mr steo and we see a lot of changes with our assistant superintendent Marissa McKenzie surrounding technology and infrastructure and there are new systems in place that are really going to protect the data security of our our it
infrastructure and things of that nature um and that should be done by the end of the month so we're moving in a different moving in a way to be more safer across the board in terms of onsite technology and Beyond um and that is it that I have
and I'll pass it on over to my partner thank you uh operations committee resolutions upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the operations committee presents the following
resolutions for the board's consideration 01 approve security drill bus evacuation reports 02 approved notification of asset change of status 03 approved use of UHS Library Special
Olympics of New Jersey youth Summit women in leadership ship 04 approve submission of application for use of rapkin Park 05 request to use the Union
High School parking lot 06 request for use of Union High School facility site 07 request from Township of Union Education Foundation and 08 request for use of
Union High School facilities that is all I have uh Madam chair thank you so much is there a second second Miss K Mackie um any discussion um thank you for the summary on the committee meeting
um chairs um one of the things that we take for granted is that in today's day and age is not just Security in terms of the physical um schools but it's also cyber security so it's two areas that we're very concerned with and looking at very
closely um the motion has been properly moved by Mr nasta and seconded by Miss K macki can I get a roll call please miss capiello Mr Cohan yes Mrs K macki yes Mrs Faria yes Mr ell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr
nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Miss Santana yes Miss carbonel yes next we will have the Personnel committee chair Miss Scott Hayden and Miss Sana to present the following resolutions that will be voted on
tonight good evening um the Personnel committee news the Personnel committee on behalf of the Personnel committee um due to certain things that are discussed in committee um because of the legal nature um we can't bring everything to you but what I would like to say um we
come before you this evening to highlight that our committee continually work to ensure that our district continues to fill necessary vacancies with highly qualified and devoted and talented individuals we also acknowledge the individuals who have submitted their
names to retire from our district we thank each and every one of you for your years of service to our students and our Community we do have a lot of great news and great things that are happening within our district I'm exceptionally proud of two um hires that are on
tonight's agenda and for the sake of time I'm going to yield the rest of my time to the superintendent to talk about these two individuals who are coming to us and um when you get to hear about them in a brief uh summary from the superintendent I'm sure you'll understand just why we are excited to
have them and we welcome them to the township of Union Public Schools [Applause] have to vote we have to vote to approve them first and then he'll come back and speak to you that's a good strategy Miss Sana
thank you so much upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the Personnel committee presents the following resolution for the board's consideration we had p1a uh voted on at work session so we'll start with P1 A1 can I move them in blocks Madam chair of
course thank you so P1 A1 all the way down to P9 because we're also excited to have Dr Vista speak I hand it over to you madam chair thank you is there a second second any discussion none
heard oh I'm sorry any discussion [Music] the motion has been properly moved by Miss Anana and seconded by Miss Scott Hayden can I have a roll call please
miss Capello Mr Cohan yes Mrs K macki yes Mrs FIA yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Miss Santana yes Miss carbonel yes and I
guess we're going to do a little interlude so that Dr benaquista can present so before that we also have to just add on P10 can we do that real quick did we just do that's the settlement you want to read it or want
me to read it was just added P1 oh you reading it on yes it is to approve the reimbursement of 1,500 to employee ID 111 587 I believe as discussed in our exact
session so moved second any discussion okay this motion has been properly moved by Miss Anana and seconded by Miss Mani can I have a roll call please miss capiello Mr
Cohan yes Mrs K macki yes Mrs FIA yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden I abstain Miss Santana yes Ms carbonel
yes Dr Bena thank you so um very excited I'm going to ask uh Mr Zer Miss bosard Miss Fisk to come on up and join me with this with uh Miss McKenzie and Dr Rodriguez uh first first
I would like to uh Mr zesar come on up I'm going to put you on the spot what was the fir what was the year you were teaching the uh teacher future teacher tomorrow's teachers it was 2020 Mr Zer who now is our athletic director started uh the program with us so when
we started uh a tomorrow's teachers uh uh class within Union High School which was double period uh Junior and Senior year double perodi double period seniors we had our first cohort I'm so excited
um to let everyone know from that first cohort how many people were in that 11 11 people we have our first hire of that program tonight hired by this Board of Ed and Mr ratino do you want to just share a little bit about
Tatiana so what come on up Tatiana so welcome home she's a math teacher so Tatiana is a 2020 graduate of Union High School um she is graduating with a master's degree from Kane
University and this spring we wrapped her up tonight and we're bringing her back she's going to come back and she's going to be a math teacher at kuami Middle School we're all excited to have her back and it's just it's just a great
opportunity to show what our students can do and who they can become and we look forward to you mold the next generation of students that's Wonder so so Tatia a lot of our graduates do their intern or their
intern their senior fieldwork and with us Tatiana wasn't able I guess they didn't allow you to I don't know but she still picked coming back to Union which makes me so proud because sometimes uh uh especially in your sht
um anyone I mean she she can go anywhere she could have and and and for her to want and and and choose Union means a lot uh not just to me she did okay so um welcome you know I'm I'm
excited and I said this when we met for you to share back uh some of the things you learned with our our current staff but also uh things you feel because you know our community that we could uh take what you give us and and bring it to our
schools and make make it better for our students even if it's the littlest thing so congratulations we look forward to you working with us you guys want to get a [Applause] [Laughter]
picture we stand come on just stand right here like that are you come on guys I'm sure oh I like the layer you don't have to go down so uh the second uh person I would like
to highlight is um you know as a superintendent um there comes along positions that some superintendents don't get to uh High a higher because the employee doesn't
leave um we had a vacancy as a head football coach for our head football coach and and also a teaching position that um you know I I was excited to bring someone in uh to our district and and Mr uh ratino or Mr Zar could tell
you about the process it was a a lengthly lengthy process several rounds many people involved including Union High School leadership and other staff um we had started off with about eight
nine 12 candidates narrowed down the final round to three and there was a a round in between that as well um and when our committee met um and we met with the the finalists I think we all
left with like Goosebumps on who the number one was there was no there was no we we didn't even have to say it we all kind of said that's our person and uh and we joke around I I think it's it's this gentleman's going to bring 100% of
what he spoke about and maybe even more to our district but if if if what we spoke about 50% comes we're going to be in good shape uh not just someone I think is going to mesh into our community he is in our community knows our community um
and I would like to I'm I'm very honored do you want to say anything about Baris I would like Baris Grant to come up and being named our a a a Union High School physical education teacher as well as our Union High School football coach and
those that know um we talked about it tonight in many ways about our students being engaged after school hours extracurricular um football as you know um is a big part of our community as
well as many sports um Baris is uh uh what he spoke about I'm I'm so excited to see what he brings to our district um again he he like I said playing sports my whole life you gave me chills to what you're going to bring and I know it's going to uh mean a lot to our community
our students and I can't wait for this board and this community to see what's ahead of us Baris congratulations you want to say a couple words yeah so I prepared something in the back as a as I waited right so I'mma kind of read off this kind of freak out
a little bit I'm truly excited to become the next head next head coach of the story program this is the incredible opportunity for my family and myself in this town I'm a Towny I live right behind keing on Len and as a kid from Irvington I've always watched and admire
this town um as the years has going past and those programs been up and down but I think with the right leadership you know in the right Spirit from the stakeholders from the community from the whole Union family uh Union farmer family I think we can build this thing back up and make this a pride of Union County and an elite program in the state
so I'm just happy you guys pick me I can't wait the work starts tomorrow and along the way we'll make sure you guys get all the uh things that Baris did in the uh his former program I know a lot was shared with us um and um
I I really do believe it's going to come over to us and we talk about making the difference in a child's life um I think that Baris is going to do that so congratulations thank you madam president so much um we taking a picture with um welcome and we're glad to have
you here as well uh we taking a picture all right let's do this I think I got it down to a yes I see the two this is young babies over there okay
oh look at that beautiful baby congratulations to all of you many blessings let's move in it's Ronnie he's always in my way I know no [Laughter] not thank
you yes than congratulations conratulations yes you know the you know the joke Miss and if you need cheerleaders we're here we're here yes om Maracas whichever
works I know that's right we'll be coming together to there are no policies to present tonight so we're going to keep moving it along now we will have the residency committee
chair Miss Mani to present the following non non voting resolutions right okay so this evening it's just for informational purposes only uh upon recommendation the Stu superintendent of schools The Residency committee presents the following resolutions for the board's
consideration R1 report of students voluntarily transfer to District of residents um and then the total amount of students uh removed uh is seven and voluntarily transferred is 10 for the
year thank you so much Miss Mani now we will have the technology committee chair Mr nasta present the following resolutions that will be voted on tonight thank you madam chair uh the technology committee upon the
recommendation of the superintendent of schools the technology committee presents the following resolutions for the board consideration T1 approved recycling of equipment that's all I
have thank you is there a second second any discussion this motion has been properly moved by Mr nasta and seconded by Miss K macki can I have a roll call please miss Capello Mr Cohan yes Mrs K Maki
yes Mrs FIA yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden Mrs Scott heeden yes Miss Santana yes Miss carbonel yes may I have a
motion to approve the Bill's list move second is any discussion the motion has been properly moved by Mr Cohan and seconded by Miss Anana can I have a roll call please miss capiello Mr Cohan yes Mrs K macki yes
Mrs FIA yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Miss Santana yes Miss carbonel yes unfinished business new business Miss Anana thank you so much Madam chair
um I put this under unfinished business because I too had the pleasure of um accompanying Madame President and Madame vice president in the Hamilton uh school and seeing so many wonderful things and I wanted to share an experience that I
had while I was there um I met we met with the rabbi's wife and it so happened that I discovered that she was a neighbor about 10 houses down from where I live and in speaking about Union
Schools children she said something to me she said my daughter was scared at first to move somewhere because everything was so different and when we moved into the house we realized that the girl next door which I'm not next
door but another little girl next door came out one day and she said mom she has the same Lululemon that I do and she has the same Uggs that I do and it just showed in a world where
we're consistently looking sometimes for the difference I challenge everyone to over and over again look for the same look for The Familiar within everyone and uh I was excited to see so much learning in a building with no computers
or cell phones shocker and I wanted to share that story with the community and with the board and I expect so many more great things not just from that building but from all of our buildings thank you nicely said Miss Santana very nicely
said new business so I just wanted to say thank you to Battle Hill they had their past a dinner want to say last week two weeks ago it was a beautiful event so just wanted to say thank you to Battle Hill and to the PTA for really organizing
like they said um earlier a lot of the work that they do goes to support their students the staff but also for scholarship funding so I just really wanted to say a thank you to everybody yes and thank you so much I had a great time and whoever makes those meatballs
they're they're amazing they going to have to teach me how to make those um but it was a great evening so thank you um comment comments from the public M Madam president can I I apologize okay new business so I mentioned earlier that I visited with Mr Shaw this morning and
but I didn't talk about uh our tour through the building and what I observed going on in the classrooms um under you know the challenging circumstances of having to move down to cane and um you know be
disrupted earlier in the year I was so pleased to see the smiles on all the students faces and how friendly and polite they were several students when I we poked our head in the door just looked up said hi you know a couple of kids came up shook my hand that's um
there was a there was a young young man in the office with uh with his teacher or his his assistant I'm not could have been a power professional and he said you know this is Mr Cohan tell them what your name is and so on we had this
little conversation it was just it was delightful to be in a school setting and see the kinds of things that we want to see going on in every space in every classroom I was very pleased with what I said so that sounds amazing Mr Cohan
thank you so much for sharing and I hope that um Madam myself along with Madame Vice President we get the opportunity to go and visit um so maybe we can coordinate as well thank you comments from the
public um we will begin with Miss Virginia Jeff I'm Sorry Miss jeffre are do you submit for both you're uh you're for the ex session yes yes we
are um Miss Jeff thank you for the suggestion but I believe comments from the public occur prior to Executive but even if I change the order that's all right too so miss Jeff no
it's on my agenda the other way Virginia Jeff 236 Brighton Avenue East Orange New Jersey Board president carbonell good evening to all in attendance in person and virtually this evening there are concerns on the agenda
and from last week's work session meeting number one the agenda of February 11th 20 25 F phisical and planning committee these questions were asked the February 2025 attorney
bills why is the check register so unorganized to why are the checks not in sequential order per vendor legal firm three has the board attorney Taylor Law Group reached the contractual limit for what is the current payout so far to the
board board attorney Taylor Law Group there has been no response to date again I request answers to these questions when will the board reply number one also why do checks go from July 2024 to December
2024 for board attorney Taylor Law Group a why are these legal Bills going back for so many months and B why are these legal bills not being submitted in a timely manner
two where are the invoice identifiers for these bills also on the agenda tonight February 18 2025 the number 18 the approval of bills
number one the check register a why is the check register for legal expenses differ from the check register for everyone else meaning all other vendors and B again why are there no invoice
identifiers on the check register thank you thank you so much Miss Jeff and I'm going to have Dr benaquista look into that and and possibly um get back to you all right thank
you Miss Susan lipstein okay Susan lipstein 2569 Jackson Avenue I just want to make mention about E9 where the board approved the township of uni education foundation's grant application and just make make it a little more clear that that's the
application form that goes out to all teaching staff to apply for Grants from the township of Union Education Foundation this year they will will be due March 28th the superintendent told me he will be sending them out um via uh
I guess electronic to all the they go out to all the teaching and uh staff and we uh we appreciate getting those Grant applications out and the board's interest in the in the Education Foundation with uh the foundation's been around I think we we sent you a list of
all the grants we've given out since 2002 and I just want a quick little story uh about a grant that we gave out in 2015 and I I'll give this it's it was a grant that we that um we gave to a
Gordon at battlehill school garden of knowledge and because a child was interested in the grant uh she would they gave out some free uh cabbage seeds and this little girl went home and grew a gigantic cabbage with her mother and
her grandmother and she got $1,000 scholarship and she was the only student in the state that year and to me that's the essence of what the foundation is we plant a little seed and we never know what going to grow Mr CaRu received a grant from us and I believe Miss masara
who is retiring received one so we've gone through the district for a long time and tomorrow I'm delivering the final supplies for one of the grants we order the materials and donate to the board of education and we just went through our procedure where we give a
receipt and the receipt is going to be taken and put it in so it's it's a board property so that'll be as of tomorrow and it's two two um microscopes that are going to be going for the a a g another Garden ground we like we would like to
see Gardens in every Elementary School we've done a lot of funding for the gardens and this is a project um to promote access to se Gardens and Outdoor Learning encourage a lifelong interest in nature sustainability conserving the
planet I mean it's a whole there's a whole um description here but basically this to me is what the foundation does we plant a little seed we don't know how it's going to grow those little microscopes can go and we might have a Nobel Prize winner that's going to be using those microscop you talk about
Hands-On learning it's perfect so I just want the community to be aware of us the board to understand you know that those applications will go out and hopefully we'll have some more success stories to add as soon as we um award those grants which we hoping we'll be announcing
those the end of April so thank you Miss um lipstein can you please stay remain there I I do want to say thank you to the Education Foundation for complimenting the resources that we have in the district
and when I hear stories like that I am I am moved especially at a time where we do not know what will happen with federal and state funding every little bit helps and when I hear one of our youngsters talks talk
about becoming the next microbiologist and your donating microscopes it moves my heart so I do want to say thank you when is the the the application is going out uh tomorrow tomorrow tonight if the superintendent and when is the deadline
I want you to repeat be due March 28th so it's a little bit different from the past we usually had them out sooner and they were due the end of February so teachers May been waiting for them and um the the applications are pretty intense if they have an issue they can probably contact us if they need a
little more time but um and this is being done in collaboration with the Dr benaquista and his team right well of course I mean we get them they go first before we even get the grant applications for years we've had
someone in the administrative office look them over because we don't want to be funding something that goes against the district's curriculum or policy so they're already looked at then we go through them again and we decide which ones will meet will we will fund we
don't automatically it's a competitive system we don't automatically fund everything and then we fit it into our budget and if we have questions we get back to the you just the whole process that it takes us a while to do it and the the application form if you looked
at it is pretty intense no I I did and I just want to say thank you once again I know Dr Dr benacquista is working with Dr Rodriguez to make sure that um this is a success once again and that our staff can benefit so thank you to you
would be missed without saying that Isabella scosta looks at is going to look at them too I mean they go through a process so we are not um funding something that goes against the district's curriculum but it's it's addition to what the district is able to
fund so we you know district and we've worked together for 23 years thank you motion to adjourn so move second second roll call please miss
Capell yes M K macki Miss K Macky yes m FIA yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes
Mrs Scott Hayden yes Miss Santana yes Miss carbonel yes this meeting is a jour e